Social Media

NBC Buying Tribe?

Numerous sources have now reported the rumor that NBC is buying Tribe, the struggling social network and classifieds site. paidContent estimates the price at less than $50 million. It seems that NBC is interested in Tribe's technology platform, which it hopes to integrate with iVillage, the social site it acquired earlier this year for $600M.

Tribe was started by entrepreneur Mark Pincus in 2003 - backers have included The Washington Post, Knight Ridder and The Mayfield Fund. The idea was a combination of Friendster and Craigslist, but it never really gained much traction - especially after Pincus stepped down as the CEO.

If NBC is trying to catch up with News Corp, they're failing badly. MySpace is a massive platform with huge mainstream appeal: Tribe is just another mediocre social network.

Update: paidContent has added the clarification that the deal is in the letter of intent stage, and may be "less than $5 million" if it goes ahead. That's peanuts.

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